Top Dix (partie une)

Over my mother’s Spring Break (or should I say the Spring Break of everyone in the United States?) my parents came to visit me. Our favorite guidebooks are the Eye Witness Top Ten Travel Guides. This is probably because they are full of pretty pictures.

In honor of these great guides (we’ve used Top Ten Paris, Top Ten Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, & Gent, Top Ten Los Angeles, and Top Ten Andalucía & Costa Del Sol), I present to you:

Top Ten:
My Parents In Europe

10. FBF’s family were kind enough to invite us over for dinner one of the nights we were in Lille. This was stressful for everyone, as it was the first time the families were meeting one another. After quick introductions, FBF’s sister asked my mom if she had ever been to Lille before. My mother responded with a lightening fast and self-assured, “No.”

The problem? This was actually her second trip to Lille! They had come to visit me over Christmas last year.


9. My parents were nice enough to take me shopping. We went to Etam, where I decided to try on a dress. I exited the changing room to get my parents opinion, and my dad started applauding.


8. On their first day in France, tired and jet lagged, I took them to the restaurant that sells the best moules frites (mussels and French fries, a specialty of le Nord) in all of Lille (or so they say). We were seated at a booth, and after finishing her lunch, my mom asked my dad if he could let her out.

By this time, my dad had started futzing with the Blackberry the office had given him, and wasn’t paying very much attention. He stood up, took a step backwards, and then immediately fell down four stairs to the level below.

He wasn’t hurt, but he did manage to topple over a table and several chairs making a horrifying racket.


7. After drinking an aperitif (or three or four) at a couple of bistros, we were sitting down to a pizza dinner at a café with sidewalk tables. Everything was going all right, until a none-the-wiser Parisian appeared, taking her adorable pug for a walk.

This resulted in my father yelling across the street, saying, in English, “we have a pug too!!!”


My dog Buester, aka the reason for my Dad's outburst.

6. Upon their arrival to Lille, I had told my parents to follow the signs for the Metro, and to meet me by the information booth across from the Metro and Platform B. I was standing directly in the pathway from their train and the metro, but after fifteen minutes of still no sign of them, I finally called them to see what the problem was.

I asked my mom where she and my father were. “We’re next to the _______ building. Do you know where that is?” she asked me.

“The what building? No I have no idea…… WAIT ARE YOU OUTSIDE?”

Although the metro signs never once indicated to leave the train station, my parents had somehow wound up outside and on a very busy street. Luckily, once I realized that they had exited the building, I found them in no time.


--please check out partie deux!--